Reasons for a Cardiff resident being sent to an Asylum in Exeter

[Special Needs Girl]

Hi,

Thomas Jones died in the Asylum in Heavitree, Exeter in February 1906.

Further research shows that he entered the Asylum in June 1905 however I have not been able to find the Register of Admissions yet to find out the reason.

Does anyone know why someone who lived in Cardiff would be sent to an Asylum in Exeter in June 1905 especially when he made his Will only the month before.

Did Cardiff have an arrangement to send people to the Heavitree Asylum does anyone know?

Could a crime have been committed and it was felt an Asylum would be more suitable than prison?
If so why Exeter and not Pontypridd or one nearer to Cardiff.

I have looked at the newspapers but cannot find anything so am asking for help please.

Many thanks
SNG

[CaroleW]

Was it a private Asylum?

[Special Needs Girl]

I don’t think so

[BumbleB]

Not quite sure why you think that he was sent to Exeter from Cardiff.  AND are you saying that his will was made in Cardiff a month before his admission in Exeter?  There is also the additional information that the address of Exeter Workhouse was Heavytree Road.

https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Exeter/

[Special Needs Girl]

He lived in Cardiff.
He was born there.
Appears on every census there.
Had at least 15 children.
Present when wife died in Cardiff.
Married a second time in Cardiff.
WILL made in Cardiff in May 1905
Entered the Asylem in Heavitree, Exeter in June 1905.

It had been suggested by a friend that he may have been sent to Exeter because there was no room in an Asylum / institute near to Cardiff.

I’m just asking.

I have found all the information about the Asylum but it doesn’t answer my question.
I’m also trying to find his last resting place.
Searches so far have not shown anything.

[Talacharn]

Article about a councillor visiting Exeter Asylum to see how the Cardiff patients were getting on.
https://newspapers.library.wales/view/4152531/4152534/95/
Search for Exeter Asylum and there are several articles about Cardiff residents being a patient in  Exeter. There was one from mid-Wales.

[Special Needs Girl]

Thanks Talacharm, I’ll check that out.

I have been searching the newspapers but using Thomas Jones in all searches.

[Talacharn]

If he died in Exeter Asylum he will probably be buried there. Maybe a communal grave. Exeter Archives could hold records that say when he died and where he is buried. (My great-grandfather died in Llanelly Asylum but there are no records and I am left with two possible dates.) I cannot imagine they would transport him to Cardiff for burial.

[AlanBoyd]

13th Jan 1906 Gloucestershire Chronicle

From a report of a meeting of Gloucestershire County Council

THE ASYLUMS
Colonel CURTIS-HAYWARD presented the report of the Committee of Visitors to the Aylums as follows:–
...
On January 5th, 15 male patients received here under the contract with the Cardiff Asylum Committee were removed to the Exeter City Asylum, so that the only contract patients now in residence are 20 males from Cardiff.
...

The article also refers to a plan for children from Gloucestershire to be sent to a new institution near Birmingham, and to a visit from an official from Stepney to see their patients. So it seems that there was a fair amount of juggling going on.